Gosh it has been a while again, there are just not enough hours in the days, weeks, or months at the moment. Time is flying by and before I know it a few weeks have gone by and my poor little blog has been sitting all lonely.

So here is my meal plan for this week and I am making it my mission to get some posts written this week as well, so watch this space!  I still love my meal planning and even when I don’t get a  chance to put it up on the blog I still do it every week, it makes life so much easier!

Monday – Spaghetti Carbonara

Tuesday – Salmon with home-made wedges and salad

Wednesday – Lasagne I will be doing both a meat and a vegetable one this week to fill up the freezer for future meals.

Thursday – Vegetable risotto

Friday – Home made pizza and salad

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Fast forward 4 years and my make up bag is now very empty and given the distinct lack of time I now have, I generally look rough with or without my make up on (the bags under my eyes have been there for so long that even the toughest of concealer can’t cover them!) so I do sometimes wonder why I bother to be honest. I have put on what feels like a million stone in weight and have generally turned into the Frumpy Mummy I always swore that I would NEVER be.

So when I was invited along to spend they day at a gorgeous salon getting pampered and testing out a fantastic new Spray tanning product, of course I was never going to say no! It was a very rare and very lovely treat, so off I went with my lovely friend Stephanie for a child free girly day out.

We headed off to Towcester to the GloBeauty academy which is set in the most glorious countryside, I felt more relaxed just pulling into the car park! We headed in and my first treatment started, along with a nice cup of tea.  I went into the salon with horrible nails and came out with the prettiest nails I have had in a long time.  Before the children came along I had my nails done every few weeks, it was my little treat. Now my only treat is to get to drink a hot cup of tea once in blue moon.

How pretty do they look though?!

Next up was a Spray Tan.  Never before in my life have I had a spray tan, so I had no idea what to expect. This spray tan was not just any old spray tan though, it was a GloTanz Spray tan, and here is a little bit about what is so special about this fantastic product -

After nearly 20 years in the beauty industry and hundreds of spray tans conducted, Northampton College of Beauty Therapy director Julie Allen became fed up with the quality of tans on offer to use on clients. They were either loaded with alcohol which is damaging and ageing to the skin, smelt like a chemical plant or looked so abnormal in colour they were comical. And so in a bid to find the solution, Julie decided to create her own tan that would meet her expectations and wow her clients at the same time. She is now proud to launch the hugely popular Glotan™ range, included the winning formula ‘Tan in a Can’ which not only appears instantly when applied but also develops over time offering ten day-lasting colour. 

The Glotan™ tanning solution was developed when Julie wanted to created a solution that was not only ‘as organic as possible’ but that did not contain alcohol and was fragranced free, but also contained added natural moisturisers and Vitamin E. She wanted her clients to receive the best and not something that would be filled with artificial ingredients or watered down. It also offers other powerful benefits such as Vitamin E, one of nature’s most dynamic cellular renewal and healing ingredients. It also includes a high quality DHA made here in the UK to ensure that you can achieve a result that is even in application and professional.

The whole spray tan experience was a new one for me, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the sexy paper pants if I am honest, but I do think the fetching hair net might just catch on? Who knows, but I thought I look totally great in it either way. If you have never had a spray tan before then be warned, they are quite cold, but very much worth it and 20 minutes later I stepped out of the tanning booth and looked more tanned than after 2 weeks in the Maldives on Honeymoon 7 years ago! Impressive stuff.

I was advised to leave the guide colour and not shower or bath for at least 8 hours after the treatment, and given a leaflet on aftercare and then me and the lovely Stephanie headed for home (stopping briefly at a gorgeous little cafe for lunch en route!).

I left the guide colour on over night and after washing it off I was really impressed with how I looked, I can totally see why people go back over and over again for spray tans, given half the chance, I really would! My skin did not dry out and the tan still looked great nearly a week after my treatment! Most impressive! These photos were taken on days 3 and 4.

If you are in the Northants area I would definitely recommend a trip over to the GloTan salon, it is a lovely place and in such a stunning setting.  The ladies are all so lovely and I left feeling pampered and very glamorous, something that this frumpy Mummy has not felt like in a very long time!

You can also see my lovely friend Steph’s Vlog on her GloTanz experience here.

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Ahhhh another week and another Meal Planning post!

I do love sitting down to write my meal plan, but this week I struggled.  I couldn’t think of anything at all to cook. Everything that came into  my head I talked myself out of and in the end I gave up.  So here it is, not very imaginative or interesting, but it is a plan, and all good things start with a plan don’t they?

Monday – Lentil Bolognese – you can see my recipe for this here

Tuesday – Jacket potatoes with tuna, I am loving Tuna at the moment so I am very much looking forward to this!

Wednesday – Egg chips and beans (just because!)

Thursday – Rice and vegetables

Friday – Vegetable pasta bake

So there it is, hopefully next week I will be able to come up with some more imaginative ideas for us to eat!

Have a great week everyone! Head over to Mrs M’s to check out the other entries.

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VisitWoods.org.uk hosts information on over 11,000 UK woods that are open to the public. Poppy Cat content has been created for the site with downloadable activity materials focusing on ‘Mystery Trail Adventures’ – available for children aged 2-6 years to engage them during family outings to the woods.

We were sent a fantastic Poppy Cat adventure pack and headed off into our local woods to do some exploring! With a range of exciting activities to do whist we explored the kids had plenty to keep them occupied!

I was really surprised when I searched on the Visit Woods website how many there were in my local area that we could visit.  We decided to visit Irchester Country park which is close to us and one of our favourite places to visit with the children.  It is a beautiful woodland setting and you could get lost wandering around for hours!  So we packed up our Poppy Cat Adventure pack and off we went.

The kids had great fun exploring the great outdoors and completing the activity pack. Both of mine love being outdoors and would have happily stayed in the woods all day and probably night if they could. 

All ready for an adventure!

There is so much to explore and do and the Adventure Pack was a great way to get the kids interested in everything around them.  We searched for bugs and climbed mountains (ok so not quite mountains but to the kids they were!) We explored everything but most importantly of all we had fun!

After such a long cold winter the sun is finally out so why not head to VisitWoods.org.uk get your pack and get exploring! 

To support the Woodland Trust partnership and allow Poppy Cat fans to continue the adventure at home, Nick Jr. will air nature-themed Poppy Cat episodes every day from the 18^th April at 7.15pm for two weeks.  There will also be campaign content at nickjr.co.uk alongside Poppy Cat clips, games and activities.

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How has it been a week since my last meal planning post? It doesn’t seem at all possible, but here we are, Monday again, it is back to school for us tomorrow so I need to be super organised with things, so here is this weeks meal plan -

Monday – Vegetable stir fry (it was scrummy!)

Tuesday – Chicken casserole

Wednesday – Chilli

Thursday – Tuna Pasta Salad

Friday – Home made pizza.  I have a Pampered Chef show I need to make a pizza base for so will make an extra one and then spilt it to make mini ones that the kids can put their own toppings on.

So that is what we are having this week! Don’t forget to link up if you have your own meal plan and have a great week!

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It has been ages since I did any proper meal planning, as a result we have ended up with some very random dinners! So I am now going to make an effort again with my weekly meal plan, not only does it save me lots of pennies on my weekly shopping bill, but it makes life so much easier on a day-to-day basis.

Things are a bit upside down here now when it comes to meal times so my meal plan will reflect that.  Now my Husband is working on a later shift he now has his dinner at lunch times.  So I cook for me and the kids at tea time and he tends to have his heated up the next day before work.  It is quite restricting on what you can make if I am honest as not everything re heats that well, so I am trying to meal plan to make sure that what we are having is either easily reheated the next day – or quick and simple to cook fresh again for my husband.

I am out three out of 5 nights this week doing Pampered Chef shows so this week is a  busy one, but having my meal plan in place means I can be super organised and it will be a breeze!

So here is this weeks meal plan -

Monday - Vegetable Risotto (I will share the recipe for this later in the week, it is made in the microwave in just 15 minutes and is super easy and super yummy!)

Tuesday - Toad in the hole

Wednesday - Roasted Vegetable Pasta Bake

Thursday - Salmon, roasted new potatoes and vegetables.

Friday - Chicken casserole

If you have your own meal plan then why not link it up, and don’t forget to check out the other entries too, you can get some great inspiration for next weeks meal plan as well as finding some great new blogs to read!

Have a fantastic week!

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For those of you that follow me over on Instagram, you might have noticed quite a few food pictures over the past couple of weeks.  I have always loved to cook, but never get the time I want to actually do a lot of cooking.  I could happily bake all day if I could! Unfortunately things like work and kids get in the way of this so my time in the kitchen is usually just to throw something together for dinner!  In my post earlier this week I mentioned that I had started my own little business and this has involved me getting back into the kitchen and creating some lovely recipes! I have become an Independent Consultant for The Pampered Chef.  I actually started last September so have been going a while now and it is going really well. So I have been testing out lots of lovely recipes to do at my parties and I have to say I am loving being back in the kitchen!

So to make this delicious Toblerone Cheesecake treat you will need the following -

Recipe

For the Base

300g Bourbon Biscuits

100g butter

For the Filling

400g cream cheese (must be full fat)

4 Table spoons Icing sugar

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

240ml double cream

200g Toblerone either milk or dark (I used milk in the picture above!)

Some grated chocolate for the top – or you can pop some Toblerone triangles on top if you have some left over!

Method:

• Crush up biscuits in a food processor (or smash them up with a rolling-pin if you         want to release some stress!) I did mine so they were still quite chunky.
• Melt butter and stir into the crushed biscuits
• Press mixture firmly into a round tin (one with a removable base is ideal really so you can release the cheesecake easily at the end!)
• Break up the Toblerone and melt it in a bowl over some boiling water.
• Soften the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and add in the sugar and vanilla extract, mix together well.
• Whip up the double cream until it is nice and thick then add to the cream cheese mix.
• Add the melted Toblerone and mix it together well.
• Pop the mixture onto the cheesecake base and either grate some chocolate on top or finish it off with some Toblerone triangles.
• Place back in fridge to chill.
• Eat and enjoy!

If you love all things food related you can follow me on Facebook on my Pampered Chef page here and find out more about the great products I used to make this delicious Toblerone Cheesecake.

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